You do not know who I am— until you see the face under the words.

Tag Archives: Christmas

I love Christmas shopping, or more so watching Christmas shopping.The bench in the mall is my balcony seat, the stores my stages, and the people my actors. The middle-aged man uncomfortably walking around in Victoria Secret who bashfully denies assistance just to ask for help a few minutes later and the woman in heels with blonde highlights and Coach purse clueless as to what anything that isn’t a hammer is inside the hardware shop drive amusement into my holiday.

Christmas is a holiday of displacement. All of the shoppers play musical chairs and find themselves in an unknown environment. The ones they cherish have them standing in a situation much like walking into the wrong bathroom and the only consolation is knowing that they’re also helplessly confused by the unfamiliarity.

The pressures on. It’s a scavenger hunt to find the best gift, or at least one they don’t return. There’s always that one gift that ends up hidden from the world or sent back to the store, and no one wants to be the one to give that gift, so for the holiday season men roam boutiques and women scavenge through Auto shops, hopelessly lost, but equally humorous.

As a child, Mother’s Day and my my mom’s birthday were always frustrating. When you’re seven and buying your mom a present the easiest things, er well cheaper things, come to mind. Chocolates, perfume, and flowers, you know, mom stuff. My mom always got flowers, or at least some variation of a plant with a homemade card. The creative gene in me opts for the homemade gifts. I mean why buy a card and envelope for a few dollars when I can make my own and say exactly what I want to say for the cost of crayons and blank paper. I like to go all out when it comes to birthdays and Christmas (oh yes, I’m thrilled this month) with cards, banners, surprises, scavenger hunts, elaborate schemes and drawn out plans. I hated more than anything buying her flowers every single year. It was so repetitive, so boring. Until I got older it was always flowers though. She was allergic to chocolate and perfume and the one time I bought her jewelry it was never worn. I moved on to more expensive gifts now, wallets, jackets, an occasionally I still buy her a plant or two, but I have to wonder if she ever tires of the smell of flowers.